"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

This may be a more important question than it appears at first glance, because you may not know who Phyllis Chesler is, and you’ve almost certainly never heard of Rachel Tabachnick. But there is a mystery afoot, so follow the clues, Scooby-Doo.

We know who Chesler is, but what do we know about Rachel Tabachnick, who has written an article at the Forward‘s Web site accusing Chesler of “single-minded zealotry” and “promoting the Religious Right and its Christian nationalism” as part of “The War Against Tolerance”?

I am stunned, and saddened by the need to demonize Bary in terms of who her supporters may be. Why are Jews and Israelis demonizing the kind of Christians who most strongly support Israel’s right to exist? Or, is that the reason, namely, that the “right” kind of progressive Jew is supposed to be against Israel’s right to exist[?]

Chesler further suggests that the Forward‘s aim in publishing Mrs. Tabachnick is to “rile your audience up against right wing Christians so they will forget all about Islamist hatred of infidels.”

Bingo, ma’am.

Which brings us to the important question, “Who is Rachel Tabachnick?” She is a prodigious contributor to the Web site Talk2Action.org, whose raison d’être is to “expose” the Religious Right. TalkToAction was founded in February 2006 by Bruce Wilson and Frederick Clarkson. From Mrs. Tabachnick’s Talk2Action biography:

Rachel Tabachnick is an independent researcher specializing in Christian Zionism and its impact on Israel, Jews, and interfaith relations. . . .In 2006, Rachel began collaborating with Bruce Wilson, cofounder of Talk2action . . .
Rachel has a B.A. in History and M. Ed. in Educational Media, and she brings to her research unique life experiences including having spent the first half of her life as Southern Baptist and the second half Jewish.

Beyond what she says about herself at Talk2Action, however, it is nearly impossible to learn anything else about Mrs. Tabachnick — except that she is a resident of Pittsburgh whose husband, Ritchie, donated to the Obama Victory Fund. (That site apparently misidentifies Mrs. Tabachnick herself as the donor; the original FEC document lists her husband’s name.)

Well, it’s a free country and the Tabachnicks are free to engage in whatever political activism suits their fancy. Perceptive readers may wonder why Tabachnick, president of an oil-engineering company with some 200 employees (i.e., kind of a mini-Halliburton), would speak at a “summit” where other agenda items included “How to Fight the Corporate Ruling Class — and Win.”

Political alliances, however, are not always rational, nor are they always transparent. We do not know, for example, how Talk2Action is funded, or how it was that Mrs. Tabachnick “began collaborating with Bruce Wilson.”

So in the wake of GOP victory in the 2004 election, Wilson organized an effort to target the “religous right,” presenting it as an American analog of the Taliban and thus, exactly as Chesler says, to “rile up” progressives “against right wing Christians so they will forget all about Islamist hatred of infidels.” By November 2005, the liberal Web site Religious Right Watch announced that former Sen. Gary Hart would participate in an online conference sponsored by Wilson’s Talk2Action:

Talk to Action, the first national interactive blog site devoted to discussing the theocratic Christian Right and what to do about it, will host a national “e-conference,” on the Talk to Action site, featuring writers and editors of Mother Jones, which is publishing several articles about the religious right in the next issue. The event will begin at 10am EST, Tuesday, November 29th.
Talk to Action, founded by author Frederick Clarkson, blogger Bruce Wilson, and 14 other writers, seeks to advance the national conversation on this subject.

All of which is to say that Talk2Action, on which Wilson and Mrs. Tabachnick are “collaborating,” is a political project originated at Daily Kos in 2004 by a partisan opponent of the Bush administration. The goal of Talk2Action is to defeat Republicans by discrediting conservative Christians, portraying them as dangerous, intolerant kooks.

Chesler’s column about Rifka Bary, and her general work in discussing the oppression of women in Islamic societies (Chesler was once married to a Muslim and lived in Afghanistan), were rather disruptive of the “American Taliban” message that Wilson and Mrs. Tabachnick have been relentlessly promoting.

This is why Chesler was attacked in the pages of the Forward.

We have solved that mystery, Scooby-Doo, and it’s time for the Mystery Machine to roll on, leaving others to pursue the nagging question: Who’s paying the bills at Talk2Action.org?

Comments

http://freerangeoyster.selfip.com Free-range Oyster

I think this makes a great follow-up to Offend a Feminist Week – to accentuate the work of a *real* feminist, who actually cares about the well-being of women in places where they are *actually* oppressed. Good on her, and on you.

http://freerangeoyster.selfip.com Free-range Oyster

I think this makes a great follow-up to Offend a Feminist Week – to accentuate the work of a *real* feminist, who actually cares about the well-being of women in places where they are *actually* oppressed. Good on her, and on you.

Tariq Ramadan and circle likely one ultimate to whom the tracks lead. That means the White House.’

The White House ? Oh, please.

Sorry to burst the speculative bubble, but the Talk2action monthly site hosting is $26 and change – which I’ve paid for most of the site’s existence. And, contributors are unpaid. Big financial backers (liberals, conservatives, aliens, whomever) would be great. However, what Talk2action does is unpopular across the political spectrum.

Tariq Ramadan and circle likely one ultimate to whom the tracks lead. That means the White House.’

The White House ? Oh, please.

Sorry to burst the speculative bubble, but the Talk2action monthly site hosting is $26 and change – which I’ve paid for most of the site’s existence. And, contributors are unpaid. Big financial backers (liberals, conservatives, aliens, whomever) would be great. However, what Talk2action does is unpopular across the political spectrum.